Jailed Land Baron Sleeps Comfortably At Home
18 March 2021
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A Harare man, Collen Mavhundutse who is accusing suspected land baron, Felix Munyaradzi of clandestinely being allowed to attend his father-in-law’s funeral in Zvimba from remand prison last year has made fresh complaints against officers from the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS).
This comes after the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Service this week said the temporary release from remand prison for a property developer to attend his father-in-law’s funeral in August last year was above board.

According to ZPCS, Felix Munyaradzi was granted temporary release from prison by Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Ziyambi Ziyambi.

ZPCS was responding to allegations by Mavhundutse that prison officials had corruptly released Munyaradzi.

In a statement, Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Service acting spokesperson Peter Chaparanganda said the facts recorded in the ZPCS occurrence books indicate that then inmate left prison in the morning and reported back at 4pm on the same day.

However, Mavhundutse has since approached the police to probe further insisting that he witnessed Munyaradzi sleeping at his Borrowdale house and accused the ZPCS of trying to cover up the matter.

“I Collen Mavhundutse insists that Felix Munyaradzi did not go back to prison after attending the funeral in Zvimba.

“I witnessed him sleeping at his house while in the company of two prison officers in civilian attire on August 14. I am however shocked by the ZPCS statement in the local media alleging that I was peddling lies over the matter.

“Instead of issuing a statement, they should probe the matter first before making any statements.

“However, I am the complainant in this case and want the relevant officials to investigate the matter further and I am also willing to testify,” he said in a sworn affidavit to the police.

Mr Mavhundutse said he recently met senior officers from the ZPCS including the Commissioner General Moses Chihobvu who assured him that they will get to the bottom of the matter.

“I told the senior officers that Munyaradzi slept at his house when I arrived around 6am, he was still in Borrowdale and they were in the process of preparing to go to remand prison.

“I also witnessed that there was a cattle carcass that was loaded in a black Toyota Hilux which being driven by a driver known as Arthur.

Munyaradzi was seated in a white Toyota Landcruiser V8 while in the company of two ZPCS officers on Saturday 15 August, 2020.

“I then surrendered about US$300 to his wife since he had given me one of his trucks to use for hire,” he said.

Recently, the complaint, which was made by Mavhundutse (38), was recently forwarded to the Special Anti-Corruption Unit (SACU), the Police Anti-Corruption Unit (PACU) and the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Service for further investigations.

Munyaradzi was arrested last year on allegations of duping people who wanted to buy stands at Sandton near Westgate in Harare before he was later granted $55 000 bail and other stringent conditions.

However, in a twist of events, Mavhundutse made a report to the police to investigate allegations that Munyaradzi allegedly connived with two ZPCS officers to allow him to attend the funeral.

According to the report made, after attending the funeral, Munyaradzi is further alleged to have gone to spend the night at his Borrowdale house, before returning to prison the following day.

He is also alleged to have slaughtered two beasts for the two officers before giving them about 200 chickens.

Circumstances leading to Munyaradzi’s arrest were that during 2015, his firm Delatfin Investments, entered into a swap deal with Mr Delish Nguwaya for the sale of stands in exchange for a Toyota Prado.

Delatfin Investments sold three residential stands — 1572, 1516 and 1471 — in Sandton Park in Mt Hampden, worth US$50 000 and Mr Nguwaya surrendered the Prado and an agreement of sale was signed on February 2, 2018.

It is alleged that Munyaradzi went on to sell the stands to other people, and when Mr Nguwaya complained, he agreed to compensate him with eight smaller stands in Sandton Park.

But then, Munyaradzi allegedly went on to sell one of the stands to Tawanda Mashumba for US$30 000.

It is the State’s case that Mr Nguwaya was aware that the stand in question had already been sold, and he lost US$15 000 in the process.

On April 20, 2015, Delatfin Investments was offered 120 hectares of State land by the Ministry of Local Government to develop residential stands. The land was previously used by the police for breeding horses.

In 2016, Munyaradzi through his firm, allegedly sold a stand fraudulently to Mrs Gabaza for US$18 000, a stand in Sandton Phase 3 to Mr Dondo for US$22 000, and another stand in the same neighbourhood to Mr Erasmus Makodza for US$40 000.

Mr Makodza is said to have later discovered his stand had allegedly been sold for a second time to Mrs Nyongo by Munyaradzi, forcing him to lodge a complaint with the police. -Herald